"Black Comedy" cast includes Nicole Stein, left, Stephen Cruz, Barbara Flanary Armstrong, Brian Taraz, right, and Abe Taltre, standing.

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It's rare that the words "farce" and "Peter Shaffer" are said with the same breath.

After all, Shaffer has written such tense and tragic dramas as "Amadeus" and "Equus."

But then there's his "Black Comedy," which Beowulf Alley Theatre opens Saturday.

That's where "farce" comes in.

And it's just the kind of play director Nancy Arnfield loves to shape.

"Some directors don't like farce, but I love it," she said in a recent phone interview.

"'Black Comedy' is like a blank canvas. The director has total freedom to be creative, with only one cast-iron constraint: to keep things moving."

Arnfield treats farce as though it's music that starts on one level and builds to another.

"Looked at that way, every actor is like a symphonic musician: They have to know what their volume and pitch are in the 'score' of the play at every moment," she said.

"Honestly, with this play I see myself more as a conductor than a director."

Any good farce should be brimming with misunderstandings that lead to comedy, and the first one Shaffer serves up is the title itself, which leads us to expect dark humor.

Instead, the "Black" of the title refers to the literal blackout that results when a fuse blows in the hero's apartment, creating chaos at a crucial moment in his life.

Brindsley is a struggling artist engaged to chilly and snooty Carol, and he's having a dinner party to impress her martinet father and a rich collector named Bamberger, who might just buy some of Brindsley's work. Trying to make his dumpy apartment look classy, Brindsley "borrows" furniture and décor from his absent neighbor, decorator Harold.

That's the setup when the fuse blows and the craziness begins. It's all played out in the "darkness," a reverse-lighting gag where the audience can see what's happening on stage but all the players act as blind as bats.

The hilarity takes off when Harold returns before his furniture has been put back in its place; a repairman from the electric company has a German accent that makes Brindsley think he's the wealthy Bamberger; and the true love of Brindsley's life, the sarcastic and sensual Clea, shows up.

It's a mix volatile enough to blow the roof off the theater.